5 Reasons Being Single in College Is Actually the Best

These four years should be all about you.

For many, college is a time of reinvention and of self-discovery. Sure, it’s primarily about receiving an education, but a lot of that education also happens outside of the classroom. College could be the time you discover who you really are, when you shed whatever persona you were as a teenager and start to dig deeper into what you want, who you’ll be, and what you’ll do with your one big life. You'll most likely make some of the best of friends of your life, the kind of friends that you'll most likely grow old with. There will never be another time in your life where so many people your age are so concentrated, so social, and so deeply invested in creating forever memories. Therefore the best advice for anyone in college is to stay open, stay ready, and never fret if you're single — it could be the best thing that ever happens to you.

1. Being single in college lets you truly discover who you are

Sure, you can be in a relationship and still know yourself, but you will never understand yourself more than if you spend some QT with yourself. When you have the space and time to find out the core of yourself, you are setting your life up in a way that you'll be grateful for 10, 20 years from now. To know who you are and what you need without attending to anyone else is really a gift, and one that should not be taken for granted.

2. You have room in your life to say yes to anything and everything

Relationships can be exciting, but the ability to say YES to life without being encumbered by the needs of another person is a rare thing. To be able to pack up and go — physically, emotionally, or mentally — no matter what, is underrated amidst the constant barrage of romance. Even the best relationships will leave you with some sort of responsibility, and while that's perfectly fine in most instances, you should be allowed to free flow in college. You could study abroad, take a road trip on a whim, say yes to a fling, explore your sexuality, and pretty much do anything you want without worrying about how your actions impact your other half. Pretty liberating, huh?

3. You will learn how to make yourself happy

Relationships are hard, and another person can’t exist to make you happy and vice versa. Having someone always in your corner is cool, but you should also know how to fend for yourself. You have to do that for you. You have to know how to pull yourself out of a bad day. That can’t be someone else's responsibility. Relationships are fickle and unpredictable. You being happy with yourself will help you whether the stormy days with your mate in the future.

4. You allow yourself to grow

Unfortunately, when two people get into a relationship, they can stunt each other’s self-growth. It makes sense: you don’t want to grow out of each other, so you end up acclimating to each other in a way that makes it almost impossible to expand emotionally. But college is a time of rapid experience and the most valuable thing you can give yourself is the space necessary to keep evolving.

5. You get to have the time of your life, literally

You get to say yes to everything you want. You get to have the time of your life with your friends. You are not beholden to anyone. You get to grow and experience the world and try on different identities to find the ones that most speak to you. College is gone in a blink and the only thing you’ll have left are the memories you made and the time you spent learning who you truly are. Embrace it.